Still here still life.

JULY 17, 2021

Always seeking to challenge myself, I've been participating in an Instagram account that posts photographs of still life compositions and challenges people to create their own version of the original. Thousands of artists from around the globe post their interpretations and it is exhilarating to view the scene from so many different points of view. My struggle is to resist the urge towards realism that drives me to a "photographic" representation and see how far I can take it into my own world of shapes and colors. Sometimes I get close to this, sometimes not so much. In this case, @stillherestilllife 60, a rather complicated scene resulted in, at least, a smidgeon of experimentation rather than the dreaded "tracing a photograph".

left: the original photo. right: white pencil on black paper assisted by the classic grid technique.
left: rough sketch reworked in white gel pen. right: vector line work done in Adobe Illustrator.
left: illustrator layer that will end up being the colors of the linework when overlayed by right: the fill in colors that are all individual “islands” on a transparent background.
Previous more or less successful attempts at remaining true to my vision without going too far over the edge.
Always a learning experience that encourages digging deeper into the possibilities of the tools.